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Seats That May Not Matter: Testing for Racial Polarization in U.S. City Councils
Author(s) -
AUSTIN RORY ALLAN
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
legislative studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.728
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1939-9162
pISSN - 0362-9805
DOI - 10.2307/3598574
Subject(s) - polarization (electrochemistry) , legislature , voting , political science , african american , white (mutation) , public administration , race (biology) , law , political economy , politics , sociology , gender studies , chemistry , ethnology , biochemistry , gene
Critics of the Voting Rights Act claim that electoral structures used by city councils lead to racially polarized legislatures in which African American members are consistently outvoted by white majorities. Using council votes from six cities, this study shows that the critics' claim is exaggerated. In only one city were African American council members generally less likely to be on the winning side of votes because of their race. Polarization is more of a concern for particular issues: members with large black constituencies were less likely to be on the winning side of votes on housing or police affairs in four cities.